By taking out the fuel tank you would be surprised how much more room you gain. I needed the room under the dash for the Air Con - Heater. Yes that is what I did and it is good to keep all that heat away from the radiator. I run two transmission coolers in the chassie rails one of the finned type and a small radiator type with its own electric fan so it creates air flow. The Air Conditioner Condensor I hid further back under the chassie and set it up with its own two cooling fans. The Air Con system is so good it can blow ice.
Probably the most challenging part of mocking up the truck came to the steering. Whoever it was that installed the engine/transmission also installed a power steering box. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the person didn't use the already proven Toyota box, they pulled a power steering box from somewhere, modified the frame to fit it and called it done. As you can see in the following pictures, the steering box input shaft came no where near the steering column. Luckily, I don't need the clutch pedal so I was able to reposition the steering column to line up with the steering box. Here are a few pictures of misalignment of the steering box and steering column. Not only did they not line up on the same plane but their angles were also different. Here are some side views of the pitman arm and such. As you're familiar with, this is the factory position of the steering column. This is where I needed the column. So I built my own floor plate from 16 ga metal. The dashed circle is the factory position of the steering column and the full circle is where it needs to go. Quite a difference. To support the bottom of the steering column I had a piece of exhaust tubing sized to fit the column tube perfectly. Next I had to figure out how to mate the steering shaft to the steering box with the U-joint. The factory steering shaft is 7/8 and the U-joint and steering box shaft were 3/4. So, a buddy of mine drilled a 3/4 in hole, 2 in deep, in the end of the steering shaft and I inserted and welded the 3/4 in double D shaft inside of it. This next picture shows the aluminum column saver bearing that I used to support the the steering shaft inside the steering column tube. it works really good. The brass piece allows me to utilize the factory horn button. The horn wire runs through the steering shaft and then exits the side and connects to the brass piece. A "connector" mounts to the column tube and completes the circuit for the horn wire. A bit elaborate but it should work fine. In this picture, I'm welding the exhaust tubing to the floor plate. I was just learning how to weld with a wire welder so forgive me if my welding isn't that pretty. And here is the finished product. I installed the door to ensure there was enough room between the steering wheel and the door since I had to move the steering wheel to the left a bit. Everything was fine and the steering is nice and smooth.
The person who installed the motor must not have had much creativity when it comes to putting something together. This picture shows how he ran the power steering lines. So I bent up some new lines and ran them under the pump and along the frame rail.
Do you think having the trans cooler in front of the condenser will affect it that much??? The trans cooler isn't that big. I guess if all else fails I can redo the cooler if I find it is hindering the cooling of the condenser and radiator. Nice truck btw. I like it.
I'd like to see some pics of how you mounted the trans coolers and the AC condenser. Sounds like a neat idea.
you have a good eye for detail, the hose routing is something that can kill the look of any engine compartment. keep the updates coming, the quality looks excellent to this point.
Is this your own design or did you purchase this setup somewhere? How is the outer contact made? Would love more details....I need to do this on a '36 Ford I'm working on. I am enjoying your build......you are doing some nice work! Keep it coming!
Hey RMR&C, I wish I could say I designed both of those pieces but I did not. The aluminum column saver bearing I purchased from Hot Rods Classic Truck Parts (www.hotrodstrucks.com). It is a family owned business and they are fantastic to work with; very helpful. The column saver bearing consists of three major pieces with the roller bearing in between them. In the picture you can see a small "collar" at the top with a set screw that fastens to the column shaft. There is another one just like it hidden under the middle bigger "collar". The washer looking pieces are the bearings. The small "collars" fasten to the column shaft and the middle "collar" fastens to the column tube. Its operation is very smooth and works very well. The horn mechanism was purchased from MidFifty (www.midfifty.com) but if you have a lathe you could probably make one yourself. There is a nylon "collar" that fastens to the collumn shaft and then the brass tube slides over the nylon. It is a tight fit. As you can see from the picture, the horn wire attaches to the brass tube with a nylon screw. The nylon block that attaches to the column tube has a steel spring loaded shaft that goes through it and touches the brass tube completeing the contact. I hope that makes sense.
your set-up will probly work just fine; I just mount the coolers beside the trans on the framerail as the lines are shorter, easier to fab, etc....and it works.
I posted much of the build on the Garage Journal Forum. Should be some photos that will help you. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10871&showall=1 By keeping them away from anything else that gets hot (Other coolers Radiator and exhaust etc.) I felt it gave them all better protection. Edited Note: HiVolt5.0 check your PM's as I have sent you some info that I hope helps you.
Here are a few more pics of the mock up of the F4. The original fenders were in bad shape. I would say they were unrepairable, but after seeing what guys like KoolKemp and aw1950 can do with nonexistent material, maybe they could have been saved after all. Regardless, I found a nice set of F4 fenders in New Hampshire and shipped down to Florida via Greyhound. I also made a little bracket to mount the horn to. I'm not sure where the location of the factory horn should be, but my goal is to keep the engine compartment clean and clutter free so I decided to mount the horn in the fenderwell area.
Now I'm up to present day. Working a few hours at night I was able to get the F4 pretty much mocked up and then I quit working on it for 2 years trying to help another buddy with his F1. Now that the F1 is done I'm back to working on the F4. So, time to take it all apart so I can paint it. A buddy of mine built a wooden dolly for the cab to sit in so one day while I was at work he and two of his coworkers came by and took the cab off the frame. It is being stored in the owners shed while I work on the frame.
Thanks! I've been trying to drop the suspension and boy the pins/bolts that go through the spring eyes are giving me fits!!! Just because they've been there since 1948 is no excuse for being so stuck right? haha
I've emptied one can of PB Blaster already but I didn't have any cold beers. I guess that's where I messing up.
There ya go then. lol Have you tried heat and bees wax? I used to use that trick when removing studs from old ships boilers, heat it till it glows, then pour a little bees wax on it, they practically fell out.
I haven't tried heat and wax. I don't have an oxy/act torch and somehow I doubt a little propane torch would get it hot enough. I need to bug some of the car guys I know to see if one of them has a torch I can borrow.
That cab dolley is a great idea. I did something similar with mine during construction using a wooden pallet and when painted it had a steel frame so the cab could be moved on a fork lift making it easier to paint. Wooden pallet ended up recycled as firewood and the steel frame was reused in the paint shop for another job.
How about Mapp gas? You can get the kits at Home Depot, Lowes etc and thats pretty hot, forgot how much.
I hoping to be able to use the dolley when it comes time to work on the cab. When my buddy built the dolley I didn't realize he built so the cab sat "inside" it. I may need to modify the dolley a bit to sit the cab higher but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Mapp gas....never heard of that but I'll check into it. Thanks for the suggestion!!
Subscribing. Got a couple F1's and F6's, and been looking for an F4 for a 5th wheeler for awhile now. Love the Bonus Builts.
Yeah, I like the Bonus Built trucks too. They just look great stock, resto-modded, etc. From some of the info I've read it seems the F4s were the least produced out of the other variants. Thank you very much! This is my first build so I'm definitely learning a lot.
Just modify so the cab sits on it and you will be ok The steel version I had held the cab square whilst we fixed and welded many holes etc. and made new flooring braces seeing I cut out the back of the cab for a sleeper cab to be fitted.
Sounds like a plan. Speaking of the sleeper on your truck, I saw a truck (I think it was an International) where the owner modified two rear fenders from a '48-50 Ford truck and made a sleeper out of them. The character line on the fender made a nice touch on the sleeper.
There were a few spots on the frame that needed to be cleaned off from where something was welded to it in the truck's previous life. Just took my trusty DeWalt angle grinder and had at it. (insert evil laugh) (sorry for the out of focus pic) I also cleaned up the ends of the frame rail.
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